Once upon an organic fraud, two grifters sold farmers a $50-million river of fake fertilizer. Fish guts and chicken feathers, juiced with synthetic nitrogen, became the nutrient steroids of the gods.

KAYUNGA, UgandaKAYUNGA, Uganda — Moses Wamugango peered into the plastic vats where maggots wriggled in decomposing filth, the enviable project of a neighbor who spoke of the fertilizer problem he had ...

Farmers depend on synthetic fertilizers to deliver the high crop yields required to meet global food demand, but that comes at a cost to the environment. Much fertilizer production relies on natural ...